Does solitary substance use increase adolescents' risk for poor psychosocial and behavioral outcomes? A 9-year longitudinal study comparing solitary and social users.

This longitudinal study compared Grade 8 solitary cigarette smokers (n = 541), drinkers (n = 577), and marijuana users (n = 148) with adolescents who restricted their use of these substances to social settings (ns = 562, 1,426, and 388, respectively) on adolescent functioning and young adult outcomes. In Grade 8, solitary users held more positive beliefs about the consequences of substance use, earned poorer grades, engaged in more deviant behavior, and devoted less time to school and more time to social activities. By age 23, these solitary users had lower educational attainment, poorer self-rated health, and greater substance use problems. Results indicate the importance of better understanding and addressing the needs of this understudied group of high-risk youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns and correlates of binge drinking trajectories from early adolescence to young adulthood.

Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories (described in terms of demographics, exposure and resistance to a pro-drug environment, and deviant behavior) of binge drinking among 5,694 individuals who completed 6 surveys from ages 13 to 23 years: nonbingers (32%); moderate stables (37%), who had consistently low levels of bingeing; steady increasers (16%), who increased from the lowest to highest level of bingeing; adolescent bingers (9%), whose early rise in bingeing was followed by a decrease to a moderate level; and early highs (6%), who decreased from the highest level of bingeing to a moderate level. Results show considerable diversity in binge drinking patterns and the correlates of bingeing across trajectory classes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring Developmental Changes in Alcohol Expectancies.

The goal of this study was to measure shifts in alcohol expectancies from childhood into adolescence while controlling for changes in the psychometric properties of the instrument. One thousand nine hundred ninety-three 4th-grade and 1,632 9th-grade students from South Dakota rated the likelihood that 23 outcomes would result from alcohol use. These expectancies were modeled using a 2-factor confirmatory factor analysis. After differences in the psychometric properties of the instrument were controlled, the cohorts were distinguished by a large difference in Alcohol Positivity, with older participants viewing alcohol's effects more positively. Additionally, older participants displayed greater Alcohol Potency, believing that alcohol has a larger impact on all outcomes. There were also significant differences in the interpretation of the alcohol expectancies items across cohorts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in predictors of adolescent smoking cessation.

Sex differences in predictors of smoking cessation were investigated among 337 male and 490 female participants in the RAND adolescent panel study. Participants reported smoking at least 11–20 times during the past year at Grade 10, with cessation defined as not smoking during the past year at Grade 12. Controlling for demographics, sex-specific analyses indicated that girls who quit smoking within 2 years had friends who smoked less frequently, perceived less parental approval of their smoking, had weaker intentions to continue smoking, used marijuana less frequently, attended fewer different schools, were more likely to have an intact nuclear family, experienced greater peer support, and rated themselves as healthier. Similar analyses for boys yielded results that were generally weaker and nonsignificant, with smoking quantity accounting for several associations in the sex-specific models. Despite these differences, interaction tests revealed significant sex differences for only three predictors. Implications of these results for understanding adolescent smoking cessation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marijuana Use From Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Multiple Developmental Trajectories and Their Associated Outcomes.

This study used latent growth mixture modeling to identify discrete developmental patterns of marijuana use from early adolescence (age 13) to young adulthood (age 23) among a sample of 5,833 individuals. After the a priori removal of abstainers, 4 trajectory groups were identified: early high users, who decreased from a relatively high level of use at age 13 to a more moderate level: stable light users, who maintained a low level of use: steady increasers, who consistently increased use; and occasional light users, who began use at age 14 and used at low levels thereafter. Analyses of covariance comparing the trajectory groups on behavioral, socioeconomic, and health outcomes at age 29 revealed that abstainers consistently had the most favorable outcomes, whereas early high users consistently had the least favorable outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and intimacy: Cotherapy with a premarital couple.

Offers N. Chodorow's (1978) critical socialization theory and the concepts of Jungian theory as modified by I. B. Meyers and P. B. Myers (1980) and measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to explain the sources of the intimacy problems encountered in couples therapy, including the woman's complaint that her partner is unwilling or unable to express emotions and the countercomplaint that she is domineering and demanding. A case example is presented to illustrate the major points of both theories as integrated in couples therapy by a co-therapy team. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental Trajectories of Cigarette Smoking and Their Correlates From Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood.

Smoking initiation typically occurs in adolescence and increases over time into emerging adulthood. Thus adolescence and emerging adulthood compose a critical time period for prevention and intervention efforts. To inform these efforts, this study used latent growth mixture modeling to identify 6 smoking trajectories from ages 13 to 23 among 5,914 individuals: nonsmokers (28%), stable highs (6%), early increasers (10%), late increasers (10%), decreasers (6%), and triers (40%). By age 23, the trajectories merged into 2 distinct groups of low- and high-frequency and their standing on age 23 outcomes reflected this grouping. Consideration of these results can help researchers identify at-risk individuals before their smoking becomes too problematic, providing an opportunity for intervention and possible prevention of nicotine dependence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Diversity and complexity in feminist therapy.

Reviews the book, Diversity and complexity in feminist therapy by Laura Brown and Maria P. P. Root (1990). This is an exciting and compelling book, challenging to both feminists and clinicians who work with women. It focuses on appreciating, understanding, and building on the differences among women. While it describes and defines the principles of feminist therapy theory, it also incorporates those principles into the very way the book is written—that is, by authors who themselves come from a variety of ethnic heritages and cultural backgrounds and who discuss the impact of oppression and victimization through sexism, racism, and classism, white privilege, and homophobia on the diversity and complexity of women's lives. The goal of this book is to offer proactive perspectives on the development of antiracist and multicultural theories so that feminist therapy theory is "relevant to all women of color, non-North American women, and so on" (p. 18). The message conveyed throughout this book is that we must "guard against imposing our own personal contexts, whatever they may be, upon the meaning and realities of women different from ourselves" in our theories and in our therapies (p. 13). The goal is not only met overall in this book, but is consistently addressed within each of its chapters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)